Daniels backs Boehner bill

The Hoosier governor and fiscal conservative hero weighs in for John Boehner's debt ceiling bill, releasing this statement:

“I hope the Indiana Congressional Delegation will support Speaker Boehner’s proposal. The terrifying, nation-threatening debt levels caused by past and present overspending and future overpromising will not be solved by any one action or in any one year. But the Boehner plan begins in the right place, with real spending restraint and would show Americans and world markets that we do not intend to commit financial suicide. I hope Congress passes it and then begins work immediately on step two of our long march back to national solvency and economic prosperity.”

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Daniels is not exactly a tea party Republican, and it stands to reason that he'd be with Boehner in the debt ceiling fight. But there are few party leaders who command the kind of respect Daniels gets from deficit hawks, and fighting the debt would have been the central theme of a Mitch Daniels presidential campaign.